simplestgift | Seven Bells: [ACTION/WRITTEN] Hat Day.

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Seven Bells: [ACTION/WRITTEN] Hat Day.

[Citizens of Luceti may see Archie Kennedy wandering around with a new hat today. It looks a little like something a magician would pull a rabbit out of, but he seems to be enjoying it. He'll be around town today--the library and grocery store during the day, and Good Spirits in the evening. In the afternoon, he'll sit at the fountain to pen a few words.]

I believe morale might improve if we had some sort of goodbye ceremony for those who were returned home. Not a funeral, mind you, just an occasion to remember them, celebrate their return, and hope to join them soon. Perhaps once a month or so, for everyone who left during the month. It's the little things that help one cope, sometimes.

Also, who left a note under my door? I'm afraid I can't read it, or indeed tell if it was even meant for me. I live in Building One, in the first flat on the first floor.

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[At first, it takes him a second to process. Then, his jaw drops and an aspirated laugh escapes his throat. After a moment, there's a real laugh of delight. He is clearly impressed.]

[sitting back, she watches him, her own smile widening in response to his delight. It was exactly what she'd been hoping for.

There's a nostalgia in the fiddle music as well. It's not exactly the kind of thing Geordie would play..but it's close, and it feels a little like home]

This...Jilly, how is it doing this? It's...

[No words. He hadn't realized how badly he'd missed music until now.]

Never mind, I don't think I want to know.

[a laugh, fingers tapping to the beat of the reel] I don't know that I could really explain it well, anyway. But it's a way of capturing that moment of sound so you can listen to it over and over again. Like a painting catches what you see.

It's not magical in the same way that, say, fae folk and dream hopping are, but I think even machines have a bit of magic in them when they manage something like this.

[Still grinning, Archie closes his eyes and leans his head back against the back of the couch. It's nostalgic for him, too, though again it's very different from what was typically played on an English vessel of his time.] When I was a midshipman, one of my messmates played the fiddle. Anyone who could, out in the middle of the ocean, became very popular. He was very quiet when he played, as if there was nothing else in the world besides him and that fiddle.

Geordie could be like that.

[a smile] He never wanted to record music, because he said audiences made him stay honest. Same with busking, instead of doing big venues. He liked playing just to play.

Have I heard you talk about this fiddling Irishman before?

You might have. [a smile] He's a close friend.

As many times as I've havered on about Horatio, I would think it was your turn a dozen times by now to talk of dear friends from home.

...if I haven't talked about them...

[a pause, reassuring herself that, no, she hasnt forgotten them. She hadn't pushed them from her mind.] I guess it's because talking about them makes me miss them more. I mean, there are a lot of people I miss. But Geordie, he was one of my best friends. Maybe the best. Along with Wendy and Sophie.

They're the kind of people who know everything about you...good, bad, ugly... and like you anyway. [a laugh] For some reason.

[He grins, understanding. He supposes he may have had two friends like that, although he didn't understand it with Clayton until it was too late. He nods for her to continue.]

Sophie's the main reason I need to get home. I mean, I miss all of them. A lot. But I kind of promised her that I would never just leave her without letting her know first. Her mom did that... and I couldn't see her go through that again.

[a pause] Except we didn't exactly get warning before waking up here.

And I've heard no one back home will even know you're gone.

I've heard the same.

...I wonder how they know, for sure.

Some people remember. Mr. Giles did.

Mr. Giles?

Someone who was here and gone before we ever came. He's back now.

And it was just like he'd left it? Everything?

As I understood it.

...that's reassuring, at least.

[as the song comes to an end she reaches out to stop the tape, ejecting it before the next can begin. There will be plenty of time to finish while she work on the mural, but first... Archie's musical education must continue.]

[Pulling out the first cassette, she reaches for the next]

[Archie watches as she performs this delicate task.]

[it's tempting to put in something that'll shock him, but for all that she's rather curious as to what he'd think of modern music, she was careful in her choices.

She gives him a smile as she closes the cassette dock with a click]

I know this might not be what you're used to... I blame the words.

[if he hated it, she'd switch to something else quick enough...but she couldn't resist. And, as she presses play, Kansas begins to pour from the speakers, a steady drum beat pounding along with the lyrics]

...What in Hell?

[she laughs, reaching over to press fingers against his arm] Just listen. For just a minute.

[And so he does. He has trouble understanding the words for a bit, but the bits he catches make his face go unusually neutral.]

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